Yucca Mountain

1. How safe are the shipments?  Our national experience (to date): 2,700 shipments; 1.6 million miles; 30 years; No harmful release of radiation  Precautions: • escorts for all shipments • 24-hour monitoring • safeguarded schedule information • coordinated logistics with local law enforcement agencies Yucca Mountain 1983 Nine locations in six states selected based on nearly 10 yrs. of research 1985 Three sites chosen for intensive study: Hanford, WA; Deaf Smith County, TX; and Yucca Mt., Nevada 1987 Congress directed DOE to study only Yucca Mountain and stop if the site was found unsuitable and Transportation of Nuclear Waste Where is waste currently stored?  Commercial power reactor sites and some DOE facilities  urban, suburban, and rural environments  131 sites in 39 states How will the waste be transported?  In shipping casks, by truck or train, that have been proven safe in some of the following tests • 30 foot drop onto an unyielding surface: equivalent to a 120 m.p.h. collision • A 40 inch drop onto a 6 inch diameter shaft • Engulfed in a 1475o F fire for 30 minutes • Immersion in 650 feet of water for 1 hour  Specifications: Rail : 70 to 150 tons, 18 feet long, 7 feet diameter Truck : 24 tons, 18 feet long, 4 feet  constructed of stainless steel with lead and other shielding materials How much radiation could be released? During Transportation:  A person 100 feet from the vehicle moving 15 miles per hour, would receive about 0.0004 millirem  5,000 to 12,500 times less than on a roundtrip flight from L.A. to New York (2-5 millirem). At Yucca Mountain Site:  First 10,000 years little or no increase in radiation exposure from the repository  Maximum exposure to occur some 300,000 years after repository is closed  Some people in the Amargosa Valley could receive an additional 260 millirem per year  Bringing their total radiation dose to around 660 millirem per year, approximately equal to the average in southeast Washington Why Yucca Mountain?  Natural geologic barriers  Surrounded by federally owned land and far from population centers  Arid climate  1,000 feet both below the surface and above the water table